US Open bunkers vs. The Open bunkers

[Jeff Doerr]

Is a bunker prefered over the rough?
US Open - YES!
The Open - NO! - Well maybe a gorse bush...

Is a bunker a preferred bail out on an approach?
US Open - Yes
The Open - Rarely

Is the sand perfectly sized, selected and groomed?
US Open - Yes
The Open - No, seems natural to the site.

Do the ground contours feed the balls into the bunkers?
US Open - Rarely
The Open - Often

Do bunkers create options where you cannot use a direct line of play in recovering?
US Open - Rarely
The Open - Enough to make great golfers nervous.

Can a player sometimes putt out of a bunker?
US Open - Not that I have seen.
The Open - Furyk's up and down was a thing of beauty.

Is the bunker a lesser of evils?
US Open - YES!
The Open - No

Is the bunker a hazard?
US Open - Yes, but a lesser one than the rough. Oakmont would have been tougher if all the bunkers would have been grassed over with primary rough.
The Open - YES, they penalize more than almost all rough.

Is a bunker a blessed sanctuary?
US Open - Often! The errant shot finds the safety of a nice groomed lie.
The Open - Rarely! The errant shot slides off the bank and into the abyss.

[James Bennett]

Is the bunker a hazard?
US Open - Yes, but a lesser one than the rough. Oakmont would have been tougher if all the bunkers would have been grassed over with primary rough.
The Open - YES, they penalize more than almost all rough.

Jeff

Have you played at Olympic on the Lake Course?  Fairways anyway.  One fairway bunker on the course?

Interesting post.

James B

[TEPaul]

Jeff Doerr:

Good post and comparisons.

I look at bunker difficulty in two ways:

1. Difficulty of their architecture
2. Difficulty of their sand surface lies

I'm not sure why there has been such a demand in America particularly that the sand surfaces of bunkers must be so consistently maintained. It's been going on for a long time over here and there seems to be no real possibility to reverse the demand for consistent lies in sand bunkers.

There was one significant course that never got into that---Pine Valley. The course has never had rakes and it still doesn't but in the last ten years or so they have begun to maintain their sand surfaces regularly. I think it would be significant if they just reversed that practice and went back to the way their sand was up until the last 8-10 years. It would send the right message, in my opinion.

[Rich Goodale]

Good post, Jeff.  Some comments, in order:

USO--Ogilvy certainly doesn't seem to think so
BO--Generally true--pot bunkers rarely offer a shot to the green

USO--OK
BO--much more often than "rarely"--it's a lot easier recovering from a bunker than from a hard pan lie to an elevated green

USO--OK
BO--NO--the sand IS perfectly sized, selected and groomed

USO--True
BO--True

USO--True
BO--True

USO--OK
BO--Furyk's was a complete fluke.  Name another.

USO--OK, but marginally
BO--Ok but marginally

USO--true only if the rough is thick
BO--not true if the rough is bare

USO--only marginally true
BO--not true

Just MHO, of course.  Good thinking exercise.

Rich